Drivers stung with record 14.4 million private parking fines in just one year
- Perry Richardson
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Private parking companies issued a record 14.4 million tickets to drivers in the year to March 2025, according to RAC analysis of newly released government data.
The number of requests made by private operators to the DVLA for vehicle keeper details reached 14,371,841. This equates to almost 1.2 million per month or around 39,000 every day.
With each parking charge notice (PCN) set at £100, drivers could face a collective bill of up to £1.4 billion. This total assumes all notices are paid in full without challenge or discount.
The latest figure is more than double the 6.8 million issued in 2018-19, the year before the Government introduced legislation aimed at tackling poor practice in the private parking sector. It also marks a 13% rise compared to the 12.8 million tickets recorded in the previous 12-month period.
A key part of the planned reform, the Private Parking Code of Practice, was withdrawn in 2022 after legal opposition from parking and debt recovery firms. Its removal has stalled efforts to raise standards and reduce the number of unjustified charges issued.
The Government has not yet confirmed when or if the Code of Practice will return in a revised form.
RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “Sadly, our prediction earlier this year that private parking companies were on course to issue around 14.5m tickets to drivers for alleged contraventions has come true. This is more than double the number issued six years ago before the Government passed an Act of Parliament intended to clamp down on the dubious practices of too many private parking operators.
“Unfortunately, the Government-backed code is still not in force which means drivers don’t have the protection it was intended to provide. As it is, too many unfair tickets are still being handed out by operators who haven’t been forced to adhere to stricter rules and too many drivers are still being hounded by debt collection companies. And, we still don’t have a single, truly independent appeals service that drivers can go to if their initial appeal to the operator concerned is rejected.
“We don’t believe the parking industry’s argument that PCNs are only at record levels purely because they're managing more car parks.
“We urge the Government to ensure the official code is launched this year with all the protection it was intended to have so that we don’t see these figures go even higher in the future.”
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